Opinion: Laurie Melrood wanted to keep families together when the parents are detained or deported - and created an approach that could become a national model.

Sometimes compassion wins – even when the topic is immigration enforcement.

That happened in Tucson, and it put Arizona at the forefront of efforts to ensure children don’t lose their families if parents are detained or deported.

It started with Tucson social worker Laurie Melrood. She saw gaps between the state’s child welfare system and federal immigration system – gaps that could devastate families.

She set a goal: “No parent would disappear.”

Then she set in motion a multi-year, transnational process that reflects the quintessentially human values of sparing children from trauma and respecting family bonds.

Consider what’s at stake.

Routine immigration enforcement can mean parents disappear from their children’s lives due to circumstances beyond their control.

How parents can disappear

If a child enters foster care when undocumented parents are detained or deported, the parents may not be able to show up in court to defend their parental rights. They may not even be notified of legal proceedings involving their child.

We don’t know how often it happens. We don’t even know how many children could be at risk.

“While we are aware of children in out-of-home care who have a parent or parents who have been deported and now reside out of country, this is not a specific data point that we track,” Darren DaRonco of the Arizona Department of Child Safety said by email.

There is no national tracking of these children, either, says Julia Sebastian of the social justice group Race Forward. In 2011, the group published “Shattered Families,” a report that estimated there were then 5,100 children in foster care nationwide because their parents had been detained or deported.

The problem started before zero-tolerance

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An AP investigation finds holes in the system that allow local judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families without notifying their parents. (Oct. 9)
AP

Both federal and state officials say family reunification is a priority, but the AP investigation found holes in the systems that allowed state judges to give custody of migrant children to U.S. families without contacting the parents. AP documents cases of that happening in other states.

Long before this news story, Melrood was troubled by this disconnect between the federal and state systems and potential impact in our state.

She shared her concerns with Kathleen Quigley, presiding judge in the Pima County Juvenile Court. They started making phone calls.

It was community organizing. “I didn’t know where it would go,” said Melrood.

The result was the Southern Arizona Transnational Task Force.

This toolkit is practical, not political

A wide range of experts got involved, including representatives from DCS and Mexico’s child welfare agency in Nogales, Sonora. Also involved were the Arizona Attorney General’s office, Arizona courts and Mexican consulates in Tucson and Nogales.

This year – after two years of work – the task force produced a toolkit that provides clear, step-by-step guidelines for attorneys, child welfare workers, judges and others.

It’s not political. It’s practical.

It’s about due process, says Judge Quigley.

“We want to give parents the protections they deserve under the law,” she says. “Any parent or child deserves the due process they are entitled to receive.”

It can be as simple as finding out why a parent is not in court when a child’s case is being heard. Is the parent in detention? Was the parent deported?

The toolkit will help assure the questions get asked and answered.

Kids need to know they're not abandoned

The toolkit explains how to find someone in the currently in federal immigration detention or after they have been deported. It tells how to connect parents to court proceedings by phone or other means so they can assert their parental rights.

“It can be very difficult for lay persons to understand current policies of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” says Melrood. The toolkit is a roadmap.

Because children have a heart-deep need to know their parents haven’t abandoned them, the toolkit includes a tutorial on how to arrange visits with parents in immigration detention – something that can be daunting, but is vitally important.

“Children need a reality check on what might be going on with parents,” says Melrood. “When you don’t know is when the most serious part of trauma sets in.”

U.S.-born children who reunite with parents who have been deported face unique challenges. The toolkit outlines what documents they need to get before they leave the United States to assure they have access to medical care and education in the parents’ home country, says Quigley.

This could become a national best practice

Melrood says training sessions on the toolkit will be offered across the state for professionals in the system beginning in late October.

Arizona’s judicial branch posted the toolkit online. The courts are also making time available for judges and attorneys to learn about it, says Caroline Lautt-Owens, director of Dependent Children’s Services at the Arizona Supreme Court.

Arizona’s child welfare agency worked with the task force to arrange training for its employees, said DCS’s DaRonco.

In addition, DCS is giving employees who attend the training the option of participating in a survey by Race Forward that will measure the effectiveness of the toolkit, he said.

“We see Arizona as a pilot for what could become best practices across the country,” said Race Forward’s Sebastian.

Arizona can be proud that one woman’s desire to help families has been embraced statewide and could become a national model.

But the real payoff will come as children and their parents feel the gentle touch of compassion.